1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor technology, particularly to a semiconductor-based planar micro-tube discharger structure and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
When connected with a long signal line, power cable or antenna, an electronic device is exposed to a transient phenomenon caused by inductance. The inductance is generated by lightning or electromagnetic pulses. An electric surge arrester protects an electronic device against the transient phenomenon via absorbing electric energy or grounding the electronic device. An electric surge arrester should be able to protect an electronic device against the transient phenomenon automatically and repeatedly and able to recover autonomously.
A gas tube is normally used to protect electronic devices but is also used as a switch device of a power switching circuit of such as a reel assembly or a vehicular gas discharge headlight. Refer to FIG. 1 for an early-stage gas tube. The conventional gas tube comprises two solid-state electrodes 10 arranged at two ends of a tube 12 and separated by a gaseous gap 14 or a mica layer. The gas tube only has a single gas discharge path. The electrodes 10 will be gradually shortened during long-term use. Thus, the distance between two electrodes 10 will increase gradually. Finally, the electric field between the two electrodes 10 becomes insufficient to induce electric discharge. Further, the distance between the two electrodes 10 is hard to precisely control in fabrication. Such a problem results in that the actual breakdown voltage of the gas tube is often deviated from the nominal breakdown voltage by several folds. Therefore, the conventional gas tube is hard to protect ordinary electronic products working at low voltage but only suitable to protect against great electric surges in a high voltage environment. Therefore, the conventional gas tube lacks sufficient reliability and reusability but has a very high dropout rate.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes a semiconductor-based planar micro-tube discharger structure and a method for fabricating the same to overcome the abovementioned problems.